Christie’s is delighted to present Absobloodylutely!, an eclectic collection of works encapsulating two of the most exciting decades in British art history.

From YBA darlings to more conceptual artists, this selection of works from the Cranford Collection spans a wide range of media. Whether incendiary images or apparitions of subtle beauty, the works all share a distinctively London tone of fun and irreverence. In the 1990s, the capital was bursting with energy and life and it was this vitality of imagination that rejuvenated the art community in post-Thatcher Britain. The introduction on the British scene of Tate Modern, the Frieze Art Fair, Artangel and Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth project, alongside the revamping of the Turner Prize, ignited both public and private engagement with art in a way never seen before.

Just as dynamic is the Cranford Collection itself, which has nurtured the city’s artists and grown with them every step of the way. Founded in 1999, at a time when there were few such initiatives by private collectors, it has remained a leading light in an art world populated by an increasingly vast array of galleries, fairs, movements and ideas. The collection, always active in the primary market and lending liberally to institutions, remains a vital force in the London art scene, supporting both superstar names and the artistic groups behind them. Over the past two decades it has worked closely with artists, galleries and organisations; many collaborations and friendships having bloomed along the way. Cranford’s visionary connoisseurship, characterised by acute curiosity, in-depth research and a diversity of approach, continues to evolve as new artistic players emerge, inspire and thrive in the capital.